Air cooled components of a gas turbine engine typically require that the cooling airflow is discharged through carefully configured cooling holes. The cooling holes distribute a cooling film over the component surface to increase the effectiveness of the cooling flow. The cooling holes are usually formed by conventional techniques such as laser drilling or electrical discharge machining. During some repair processes material deposition is applied to restore cracks or other defects, and the cooling holes near these repair areas are filled with that filler material. The filled holes may need to be drilled again. In prior methods, an operator manually locates hole positions to be drilled. Accordingly, repair cycle time is very long, because of the locating time of the part for each hole. Also, process accuracy is very low, since an operator is manually locating the part for drilling operation. Further, depending on the operator skill level and experience, drilled hole locations may not agree with the manufacturing tolerance specifications.